Trial of limo operator pushed to Jan. 6

Defense team on Thursday examined the now-dismantled limousine

Staff report

Updated
7:07 pm EDT, Thursday, May 23, 2019

A 2001 Ford Excursion enhanced limo owned by Prestige Limousine is pulled from the crash scene on Saturday, Oct. 6, 2018. The company's SUV-style stretch limousine crashed at 1:55 p.m. Saturday near the intersection of Route 30 and Route 30A, killing the driver, 17 passengers and two bystanders who were standing outside the Apple Barrel Country Store in Schoharie. (WRGB (CBS-6) Used by permission) less

A 2001 Ford Excursion enhanced limo owned by Prestige Limousine is pulled from the crash scene on Saturday, Oct. 6, 2018. The company's SUV-style stretch limousine crashed at 1:55 p.m. Saturday near the ... more

Photo: WRGB (CBS-6) Used By Permission

Photo: WRGB (CBS-6) Used By Permission

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A 2001 Ford Excursion enhanced limo owned by Prestige Limousine is pulled from the crash scene on Saturday, Oct. 6, 2018. The company's SUV-style stretch limousine crashed at 1:55 p.m. Saturday near the intersection of Route 30 and Route 30A, killing the driver, 17 passengers and two bystanders who were standing outside the Apple Barrel Country Store in Schoharie. (WRGB (CBS-6) Used by permission) less

A 2001 Ford Excursion enhanced limo owned by Prestige Limousine is pulled from the crash scene on Saturday, Oct. 6, 2018. The company's SUV-style stretch limousine crashed at 1:55 p.m. Saturday near the ... more

Photo: WRGB (CBS-6) Used By Permission

Trial of limo operator pushed to Jan. 6

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SCHOHARIE — The trial of Nauman Hussain, the limousine company operator charged with the deaths of 20 people during a crash last fall, has been adjourned four months and is scheduled to begin in early January.

Hussain's attorney, Lee Kindlon, said the rescheduled trial date is a result of a request the defense team submitted recently asking to extend deadlines for filing pre-trial motions.

On Thursday, the defense team and its crash and vehicle experts spent several hours examining brake and other parts from the now-dismantled 2001 stretch Ford Excursion that was carrying 17 passengers when it crashed along a rural highway in Schoharie.

They inspected the vehicle's parts in a conference room at the State Police Troop G headquarters in Latham, where the limousine has been kept since last year.

"We’ve been with the limo all day; our defense team finally got a crack at it," Kindlon said.

Hussain, 29, was arraigned on April 10 on 20 counts of second-degree manslaughter and 20 counts of criminally negligent homicide related to the Oct. 6 crash. The 17 passengers, driver and two bystanders were killed, making it one of the worst transportation crashes in the United States in a decade.

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The condition of the Excursion's brakes is a critical element of the case. A person briefed on the statement of a witness told the Times Union earlier last fall that moments before the crash, the limousine had pulled to the side of Route 30.

The limousine was rolling slowly forward on the shoulder, the witness told investigators, but its backup lights and audible warning signal were both on. The witness continued driving down Route 30 and had stopped at the intersection of Route 30A when the limousine, its motor roaring like a jet engine, descended the hill at a high rate of speed.

The limo driver, Scott T. Lisinicchia, swerved to avoid the witness' vehicle, and the limo careened across the intersection, striking and killing two bystanders before crashing into a ditch. The people inside the vehicle, including Lisinicchia, were killed from the force of the impact, authorities said.

The passengers had booked the limousine that morning though Hussain's company for a birthday party in Cooperstown.

The Excursion and the limo company are owned by Nauman Hussain's father, Shahed Hussain. State Police immediately focused on the son, who was operating the company while his father was in Pakistan allegedly seeking medical care following open-heart surgery.

Prosecutors have asserted that Hussain knew that the Excursion, which had been cited for safety violations in the months leading up to the accident, was unsafe to drive and that Lisinicchia, who had a "significant" amount of marijuana in his system at the time of the crash, did not have the proper license to chauffeur that many passengers. The driver was also taking anti-seizure medicine.

A parallel investigation into the crash by the National Transportation Safety Board is ongoing.